Fabcar: Laguna Seca

This race went very well, traffic was great. Everyone was very eyes-open and gentlemanly.

Knocked a whole second off of last season's qual time... Really surprised myself; Found a way to be stable with the front splitter at 4.

Had no issues in the race, no problems or offs. Watched some good battles ensue ahead of me, and had a fun time seeing just how fast Turn 6 could be taken.. Best I managed was 194 kph at the apex, and 199 kph at the exit.

See you all at Elkhart Lake!

man, overslept again :(, damn daylight savings

eh...not a great race overall for me.

Started off okay. Lost quite a bit of ground to Tristan in the first stint but I gained over Rob who was in 2nd, so after a while, all I had to do was focus on 1st. The second stint, I upped the ante and started running times closer to Tristan's. Keep the distance between us below 20 seconds but after a while, I hit heavy traffic and that margin got larger.

Right before my final stop, I had a lazy spin going into the corkscrew. Took me a while to get going again and once I did, I immediately pitted. But the trouble didn't stop there. On my way out of the pits, I locked the fronts and slid into the dirt, inside of turn 1. Took me 10 seconds trying to get the engine back running but it chose to be stubborn. Finally got it going again, but I lost so much ground, Tristan was getting close to lapping me. Rob was also on my tail. Fortunately, I kept it clean the final laps and brought it home safely.

Could have been a whole lot better, but then again, it could have been a hell of a lot worse!

No matter, I'll take it :)

Grats to Tristan. Cya guys at Road America.

Fabcars saved my weekend, despite a humble 13th place, and despite my friends Bob Fay and Scott Berube not being able to join.
What a delightful series, too bad it conflicts with a lot of the F1 events, otherwise I would attend each. Given all the discussions about the future of GT-I and the mess from the stock car race, this hour and thirty minutes reminded me why I love racing. I noticed that in all the, unfortunately few, Fabcar races I attended-- you are always battling someone, no matter the time of the race and your skill set.
I had a good car, although I could have spent a few more hundred laps testing: as it was, I had one day of testing with her, and although I was getting to a better grip, I know there was a lot of work left in her. Tristan Bayless leaves me speechless in a lot of the cars he races-- but how he can lap Laguna Seca in 75 seconds in these stock Fabcars is an achievement that cannot just pass quietly. Amazing. Phenomenal.
Qualied in the 18s, which pleased me and I was very happy to see both John O and Gregg M outqualify me.
Started okay and I just wanted to have a clean race. Had some great battles with several drivers. I was amazed that in both my pitstops, which for once in my life I did spotlessly I came out behind the drivers I was battling-- Tom Middleton and Omar Gonzalez. I thought I could get Omar there at the end, when he made a couple of mistakes. I am very sorry to Charles Hodges-- I was trying to let you go while keeping up my battle with Omar, and at the last lap I had no choice but unlap myself a little dangerously (on the outside of T1) but I was trying to pressure Omar. I think Charles realized what was going on and let it go, although perhaps underneath his helmet he was probably muttering sweet nothings about me...
A quick comment, to be taken constructively please. IF you are faster than someone, and it's not the last two laps, try passing them in places where it makes sense and not by sticking your nose in at a risky mid-corner moment. Trust me, when you are faster than someone you WILL get by if there are more than a few laps left. Risky passes very rarely pay off.
Great racing everyone. I hope these races next season will not conflict with F1 or be too close to them. I can't wait to be able to do the next one.
Tristan, again-- yours was a lap from the gods. I am still numb.

Too many mistakes... Mostly self-spins... I was having great batles with Francesco, Tom and K. Banic, but they're hard to pass and I ended up in the wall 3 times... I did not understand the flashing lights when battling for a position... ...anyways, back again to catch these cars after my spins, only to loose it again....lol.

That "corckscrew" got the best of me!... Difficult to pass here so I had to take some risky moves I admit... I was just racing so my apologies if I was too aggressive at some point...

Grats to Tristan and the rest of the podium.

Qualy went as good as I thought I could do.

Race, Started off well, I tried to hang onto the front guys wings but i became to weary of tire wear so I decided to run my own pace. At one point I built up a considerable lead to 5th place until I lazy looped it in the hairpin which negated everything I had built up, now its time to pit, I pitted and resumed 4th for the rest of my second stint.

Feeling Jerry was on me heels a quality pit stop was in order for me to retain 4th, I pit first, jerry 2 laps later, I pass jerry on the front as he is exiting the pits, I managed to build up the gap once again only to have another small bobble, and this is where it gets hairy, on lap 54 jerry and I are in a tight battle and he gets around me exiting T4 we go side-by-side for 2 more corners not even trading a scratch, he takes over the lead, I continue applying the pressure for 4 more laps until we come up onto lap traffic, of all places the last corner, jerry has to wait a second and this allows me to get a run on him going into T1 and I am able to make it stick and finish off the race in 4th. Great battle there Jerry!!!

Also, the sportsmanship displayed to day was awesome, really, many new guys and veterans showed great respect for their fellow competitors.

Cheers,

Nice Win Tristan,

I had a great race until I hit the rev limiter coming out of the pits on the last stop. I was in 10th, but after the stop and go penalty I was in 17th. Now I am driving mad. I made it back to 14th. But because I was driving like a lunatic. I smack the wall and broke my car.

Moral of the story... Move the rev limiter to a safer spot.
I had fun racing while it lasted though.
See y'all next week.

Congrats to Tristan and Conor.

That's the best I had to offer. I was hoping that I could have provided more of a challenge for Conor, but it became clear once he settle into his pace that 3rd place was the best I could do.

I had a pretty lonely race for the most part, knew Jeff was keeping me honest so I just tried to focus on not making any mistakes. It was an issue free race (for a change).

As I start to understand how to drive these cars more, I hope to put on a more serious challenge in the future.

To celebrate my podium, went for a long hike with the wife on our local Mountain (Mt.Diablo) -- dang this time of year is nice. Green everywhere, 76 degrees, couldn't ask for a better Sunday.

See you next time.

As usual I was pretty slow but I was having a good race with one or two guys for a change. I was cruising along and I thought I would unplug my headset because noone was talking. I reached up and pulled the headset chord out and to my surprise it was wrapped around the G25 chord which also came out. The car went straight into the wall at the last corner and just like that I was done.
Also, Thanks to Tristan for giving me a good setup. I guess he hated to watch me suffer. That setup helped me alot.

Jeff pretty much covered it. I had a great time chasing him down through most of the race. Traffic was great, everyone did a great job. Gotta give it to all the guys racing Fabcars this season, there's good battles going on through the whole field.

Jeff, we actually did "kiss" each other's doors a couple times when we were side by side through sector 1/2 those couple laps. My forcefeedback kicked a couple times when we touched doors. Pretty fun stuff, some Nascar-esque door grinding there. ;) The naked lady on your door got a little bit more naked. hehe

After Jeff got by me, couple laps later, I spun it coming out of the last turn. Tires were roasted by then, and I gunned it too hard trying to get a run on Jeff coming out of that corner.

See everyone at Elkhart Lake.